Notes: I do not own Marvel Characters nor LOST and its lore. This is an alternate version of the story and its timeline. Instead of taking place in the early 2000's, LOST will take place in present day with its initial crash. Along the normal passengers of Flight 815 will be at least one extraordinary being that may change the path the survivors embark on.
LOST on a Marvelous Island
Previously, on LOST…
DAY 1 (Prologue)
As the plane broke apart in the air, the transformation was already happening. Somehow, the beast did not fully emerge until Bruce's body went careening through the air after being ripped from his seat. He was near the front section of the plane, but had he not been who he was, he would have been one of the unfortunate ones who never survived the crash.
He saw flashes of the island as he spun through the air out of control and without a parachute. His dark crimson dress shirt and 'stretchy' gray slacks were to be nearly non-existent soon, but that was the least of his worries. He was more concerned about where he would land…
…and how badly he was going to damage it.
He blacked out upon collision with the trees and the forests. He felt his spine snap against the trees, and his shoulder become dislocated as he ripped through thick branches. Then suddenly…darkness.
A resonating roar echoed through the island for miles around as the beast was awakened.
Trees were at his absolute mercy as he ran deeper into the jungle to seek means of shelter to hide from survivors. The best Bruce could do was hope the beast would honor his final wishes before he went under; not to hurt anyone.
It had been less than ten minutes, and already he covered several miles on foot. There was nothing to smash, nothing to maintain his rage, but only fear in the beasts heart that kept him present. Many people heard him…, but none louder than Bernard who was scared stiff in addition to being suspended in a tree.
Bruce was a far ways off from the Tail Section's soon-to-be established camp, but still…no one was safe until he was himself again.
All he could remember were brief flashes of memories. Images of Betty Ross, images of trees he passed and animals he crushed on his route to nowhere….
Later…
As the tail section began spending their first night on the beach of the Island, there was a sound of struggle that instantly brought the memory of a beastly roar to Bernard's mind. The others who heard the beast hours prior perked up, but their hearts were at ease knowing the grunting was nowhere near as Dinosaur-like. The moment of comfort was quickly replaced by a tense, frightening realization that something violent was happening.
When Ana Lucia woke, the first thing she looked for was the children from where she sat. When it was confirmed they were safe and unharmed, she started to mentally count down who among them was not present and asleep. It wasn't until words left her lips that she realized Eko wasn't among them.
"What was that?" Ana Lucia knew she had to act now, or risk whatever was happening spreading to their sleeping area and endangering the kids.
"Maybe it's that…that monster?" Bernard spoke while refusing to move very far from where he was sitting. Not because he wasn't afraid, but he was the only one among them who thought the 'roar' most of them heard wasn't part of the plane hitting the Island.
Ana ignored the thought and started to stand while Goodwin fetched a torch to illuminate the darkness where the sounds were emerging.
"Libby, watch the kids." She took charge of the situation as any good cop would. She knew she had to be the authority figure for these civilians due to her prior occupation and training. She was best suited for the job.
What they found, however…was not a monster… but Eko on all fours with two clearly dead bodies on either side of himself. The faces were not familiar, and Ana recalled the faces of the survivors quite easily. Before she even went to search them, the curiosity and fear that would confirm they were not alone was already racing through her head, mixing a lethal tequila and tonic of anxiety, insanity, and mistrust in her already volatile mind.
Episode 1: Days Without Incident
Day 2
Bruce woke up in the middle of the jungle in the early hours of morning. He had no idea how he got there for the first few minutes. When he pushed himself up with one hand on the dirt, and he examined the plants around him to try to decipher where he was. None of the plants seemed consistent with those found near Australia…there seemed to be a mix of dozens of possibilities. It was like a Botanists' dream he found rest in.
His shirt was completely ripped save for a single strand that looped across his chest and torso. His pants were transformed into mangled shorts, but still held to his slightly pudgy waist. Banner didn't see anyone he knew anywhere around him. Did Steve survive? Did anyone survive, he wondered? However, the darker question was if anyone survived after he transformed.
That thought made his gaze upon the plants turn to one of sorrow. He could already feel the blood on his hands without having shed a single drop from another human soul.
The doctor made his way to his feet and immediately started shouting. "Hello?!" He called out. He started to trek through the forest. He didn't know which way to head, but his senses wanted to find a beach or some sort of shore so he could further decipher his location and possibly find help.
By the time Bruce heard the sounds of water…he also heard voices. Almost on instinct, he hid himself in the thick greenery to view the group from afar. He heard them discussing that people had been taken from their group, that the beach was dangerous, and that the plane could not be found due to it flying two hours in the wrong direction.
All of this was bad news from Bruce. He did not know if it was wise to step out into the open or not, but if he didn't help these people, he could never help himself. There was mention from a young man in a red shirt that there were injured people and children among them. If anything, that was a cry for help for his services.
Just as the group made a choice to stay on the beach and make a signal fire, Bruce carefully stepped out with both hands above his head to show he was unarmed and meant no harm. He was sweating, but had no visible cuts on his body at all.
"Hello? I'm a doctor, were all of you on flight 815?" He wanted to kick himself for blurting it out like he did, but it was all he could think of in the heat of the moment. Everyone turned around, but none faster than Ana Lucia herself.
"Stop right there!" Ana shouted out, immediately going into a mode to protect her party. "Down on the ground!" She didn't have a gun present, but she took a threatening tone in her voice while Eko was coming toward Bruce at a pace that only meant a fight was coming.
It wasn't until Bruce got onto his knees with his hands up that Ana recognized his face. "Wait!" She started to run forward to intercept Eko. "…He's one of us. I saw this guy." A brief flash of standing near him in the terminal may have very well saved this man's life, she thought. "You said you're a doctor?" She had the injured people to consider as well as how she looked as their leader.
Bruce looked up to Ana…then to Eko. The large man said not a word, but offered a questioning glare to him. "Yes, I'm a doctor. I can help the injured. Do you have any medicine?" He recognized Ana as well, but not so much with Eko. He started to stand up carefully, not wanting to get smacked around and have…the monster destroy them all.
"We don't have anything." Ana explained as Nathan, the man in the red shirt, started to move in close to the group. Goodwin, a slightly older gentlemen, seemed the most puzzled by Bruce's arrival but approached with a casual stride.
Ana continued. "We just have Libby who knows a little bit about a lot." Her eyes squinted as she looked back with sunlight glaring in her eyes. "We could use a guy who knows a lot about a lot." When Ana faced Bruce again she had her somewhat-angry expression present. "That you?"
Bruce started to 'roll up his sleeves', but realized they were not there. However, he nodded toward Ana Lucia. "That's me. I'm going to need to look at the injured and about twenty minutes to an hour to survey the plant life in the area." He went right to work while he made eye contact with each of them where he could. "I'll need an assistant or assistants to examine the plants and see which ones can help us…" He looked toward Goodwin then. "And which ones won't. Like…poisonous. We want to keep the kids and everyone far away from that." He turned his gaze upon Eko for some sort of smile, but was given none.
"What happened to your shoes?" Nathan spoke up. "And your clothes? You don't look injured."
Suspicion was in the air. Bruce could feel the tension squeezing down on his intestines. "The other guy I was with took my shoes and socks. He took my clothes because he thought I was dead I guess." Bruce was oddly telling the truth to an extent, so it came through in his eyes. "By the time I caught up with him, he'd torn my stuff up. He probably used the material to treat wounds or something."
Ana wanted to give Bruce a chance, but something was starting to feel out of place. "What did this other guy look like? He went out alone?"
"He was a big guy, really muscular." The truth once again was easy to detect in his voice. "I didn't' remember seeing him on the plane, but he was with me when my seats hit the trees a ways out. Last night those seats were the base for a camp fire to keep me from catching my death."
Ana knew how to detect a lie. She'd detected several upon her arrival, but Bruce was definitely being honest with them. She looked to Eko for approval first, then toward Nathan…then Goodwin. "Alright," She turned toward Bruce and patted the big guy's shoulder gently. "We'll get you a volunteer and some clothes if we have any for you."
She did not volunteer herself because of her responsibilities to the people, and certainly not Eko because of how much safer she felt with him within a meter of her.
Flashback #1: Alone in Australia
Somewhere in Australia…
"Thank you." Bruce said to the saleswoman who'd just given him the baseball cap he purchased. As he turned to leave the store, he placed the red cap onto his head over his recently trimmed mane of hair. Life for him was better for him now, but not entirely perfect. He walked among the people as if he were one of them, but not perfect.
The hunt for him was still very much alive, just silenced by S.H.I.E.L.D. as far as he knew. Something did not set well with him, however, and it was not until Bruce got back to his hotel room that the thing bugging him began to take center stage.
He pulled his laptop up and set it on his bed as he sat with his legs crossed. He was dressed in blue sweats and a white tank top of the best materials he could afford in case of an incident. So far, it had been more than two weeks since he last had to call upon the other guy for S.H.I.E.L.D.
He accessed his emails, and immediately saw the latest mail was from LittleCanary777, an e-mail address of Miss Betty Ross, the long-time love of Bruce's life. Even after the events in New York where he and the Avengers protected humanity, Betty's father still made every effort to contact her or meet her impossible. For the sake of protecting the people from himself, Banner decided meeting Betty in person could lead to an unintentional trap.
When he opened it, the message read:
"I'm leaving tomorrow. Same spot.
-Canary"
Bruce smiled at this news and closed the e-mail out. He knew he'd be seeing her very soon for the first time in quite a long time. A meeting uninterrupted by the United States military was to be theirs at last.
He spent the next couple of minutes researching real-estate in Sydney, Austrailia and other cities in the area. It seemed the two were planning a permanent move.
Though, this wasn't what was bothering him. The email that came in directly from Tony Stark had what he feared inside of it. There were shocking visuals of mammoth creatures attached to a file belonging to the Dharma Initiative. The file was incomplete, as it seemed much of the data was either corrupted or deleted, and a location of their operating facilities couldn't even be found by Stark.
Bruce rubbed his scruffy and shadowed beard over while viewing the file. There were no names that stood out to him, but the file did include the use of the serum currently in Steve Rogers' bloodstream. At least, a replicated strain that created the first possible…'Hulks' born of different radiations potentially. With a project like this existing, Bruce could not rest easy at all…
(Flashback End)
Day 5
Another survivor passed away. Bruce had done all he could with the help from his 'assistant' Libby. He attended the funeral, but he hadn't a single word to say on this day just as Eko. He stood near Nathan and occasionally glanced up at Ana Lucia whom he shared very few words with since his acceptance into the group. He was beating himself up on the inside for the most recent passing. What good was a doctor like him on an island like this? He had no lab, no medicines, but he had the wisdom needed to potentially save lives that didn't need to be lost.
After the funeral was over, and Bruce helped bury the dead, he relocated himself along the beach where the injured man formerly slept. He was going through his things, even wore one of his shirts snugly along his body that was retrieved from the man's suitcase. It wasn't the clothing that Bruce was interested in, really. It was a pair of slightly cracked reading glasses that he examined in the slowly setting sunlight.
He was joined by Libby, who invited herself to crouch down beside him. "You did the best you could with what you had," She said, trying to be supportive of the clear sorrow Bruce was going through. "You were incredible, Bruce. It wasn't your fault."
"…Far from…" He paused and glanced up at her. "Incredible." His attention went back to the glasses. "Ana Lucia probably thinks I didn't do enough. She probably thinks I let him die."
"Why would you think that?" Libby's brows lowered as her new found friend's theory seemed unreasonable to her.
Bruce was silent, and on occasion looked over to the woman with a smile on his beard-shadowed face. "I hear people talking. Really good ears." He began wiping the glasses off with the hem of the shirt while proceeding. "They think it's odd I didn't land in the water, and I wasn't injured. Yet here I am."
Libby had no comment on this at all. She just looked out over the water as she sat down beside him.
"I just want to get the hell off this island like everyone else…" Bruce opened the glasses up and placed them over his eyes. The left lens had a crack going down partially through it, but he could see fine.
Day 9
While sitting on the beach and practicing his breathing techniques to keep himself at peace best he could, Bruce felt the eyes of Ana Lucia on him. He could tell she was thinking something to the effect that he was either a total nut job or some sort of yoga guru on the side.
The feeling was starting to irritate him, but on the outside the jovial expression of his formed. It was a mask as indestructible as the secret he was doing his best to hide.
"Anger management?" Ana spoke up while crouched in the sand, carving up weapons in case of another attack.
"Something like that." He squinted a little due to the sunlight, but he could make out a small smile on Ana's face. "I made you smile? You must be hard-up for cheer." He held his smile as Ana accepted his humor with a small chuckle.
"Haven't heard a joke in a while." She explained while looking down at her work. "Nathan's sense of humor's about as bad as his bathroom urges."
"Might be a nervous reaction." Bruce said as if he was the man's doctor. "He might have something to the effect of difficulty making bowel movements due to extreme distress or being uncomfortable."
"That a joke?" Ana looked up with mild disgust in her eyes.
Bruce paused in the middle of his further explanation and looked back over the ocean. "Yeah." He lied. He felt dreadfully awkward now after letting his mouth run yet again. Things were silent for a few seconds, but he tried his luck again. "I'm sorry. It's just nerve wrecking to try and look useful to the leader of the pack."
Ana Lucia chuckled again while smoothing out the handle of her sickle-like design. "Leader of the pack, huh? Well, people don't tend to like me. Feeling important to them and the kids…" She hesitated… "Just telling them what's best for them."
"What about what's best for you?" Bruce started brushing sand off over his knees as he continued to sit Indian style.
Ana stopped her work and froze. She gave Bruce the longest gaze she'd probably given him the entire nine days. Her lips were pouted and made it difficult to detect what emotion was currently in play. "What's best for me is that I do what I can to protect everyone."
"You're a soldier, Ana Lucia." He exhaled while going back to begin his breathing techniques. "I know a guy who'd be a good match for you."
"You hittin' on me?" She responded half-jokingly. "Gotta work on your game. Save your 'friend' the trouble and don't mention me, though."
"Not hitting on you," Bruce explained. "Just saying is all."
"Never got a chance to ask you," Ana spoke after glancing across the beach at Goodwin and the others. "You got any kids, Bruce? Got a wife, girlfriend, or anything back home?"
Banner opened his eyes up and looked back over toward Officer Cortez. "You hitting on me now?" He said playfully, but it didn't get much of a chuckle from Ana. "No, no kids. No… girlfriend either. Just a smart guy living alone."
"She break your heart?" Ana asked without letting many seconds pass. "Kind of paused at the mention of your girl. Something tells me she broke your heart."
Bruce started to get frustrated. He played it off by starting to gather himself to stand up. "Some things just aren't meant to be," He explained. "I just accepted what I couldn't change." He started to walk past her, heading back toward the rest of the group. "It was nice talking to you, Ana Lucia."
Night 12
"Keeping the sand warm?" Ana Lucia's voice reached Bruce's ears. He was sitting alone on the beach, away from all the others getting ready for bed. She didn't have a smile on her face, but her tone seemed to relay a sign of humor. "You know the drill, Bruce. We don't sleep until everyone's in."
He started to stand up and dusted himself off as he met eyes with the woman again. "Hopefully, I get some rest tonight…" He said as he approached her almost cautiously. "Haven't slept much since…well, since I got here."
Ana lifted her chin up and slowly tilted her head as her hips shifted her weight onto her right leg. "Yeah, I can tell. You look like hell." Another squirt of humor doused her tone. "What, you keeping an eye out for all of us?"
After a moment of consideration, Bruce nodded. "Yeah," Though she didn't know that he was watching out for them due to a potential unsuspected transformation from him. "Hard to sleep after cannibals take people in their sleep."
"Cannibals?' Ana Lucia's humor was gone. Now she looked concerned. She stepped aside to let Bruce walk by her. "Hey, you saying that people are getting eaten?"
"Well…" Bruce paused in his steps. "We're on an Island in the middle of nowhere. There may be natives, pirates, criminals, …and even cannibals. We don't exactly have an exploration team and a history book to tell us what's out there."
Ana crossed her arms and pressed her lips tightly together as Bruce commented. "So what are you saying? We should go out there and explore? We should all have a hard time sleeping at night?"
"No, I'm just…" He took a deep breath as he sensed anger radiating off of the woman. "I'm just making a fool out of myself for even thinking that way. I want everybody to be safe. I…" He took of his cracked glasses and closed them. He gestured the glasses toward the ocean as he continued speaking. "I want to get off of this island with everyone intact. It's our job to all survive together."
"And it's my job to make sure nobody else misses the rescue." Ana's intense, lion-like eyes reflected the distant campfire as she glared at Bruce. "Go get some sleep, Bruce. I'll sharpen a couple of sticks in case of cannibals."
"Right…" Bruce gave Ana a glance before he started to head toward the camp. "Goodnight, Ana Lucia."
"I'll be on the lookout for that guy who landed with you." She said while watching him. "Could have been one of them."
"…The other guy isn't." He said under his breath as he stepped through the sand.
Flashback #2: The Other Guy
It was one week later after Bruce's arrival in Australia. He hadn't heard back from Betty at all, but he refused to give up on the fact that she would be arriving soon. He went to the same restaurant every night at eight o'clock, and hoped that Betty would walk through the doors and see him.
It never happened…and night after night, Bruce scoured his various e-mail addresses to try and find a message from Betty. Nothing came, not even an update from Stark about the Dharma Initiative. It was all up to him to dig deeper into the topic where he could.
Two weeks passed, and still there was no sign of Betty.
Three weeks….
A month…
It seemed Banner was going to simply assume Betty had second thoughts about their new life together. That was until he got an instant message from LittleCanary777. Immediately, Bruce perked up as his heart rate amplified in excitement and anticipation.
Betty wrote… "I am here. Where are you?"
Bruce was a bit skeptical. His brows lowered when he read her words. Betty usually took shortcuts with words like 'I am' and turned them into 'I'm'. He shook off the thought and responded. "At the hotel. What kept you?"
There was a pause in responses for almost a minute. Betty wrote again. "Dad was suspicious. I had to explain that this was a vacation only."
"Sorry" Bruce responded. "Talk to you shortly."
He was quick to get ready. Thanks to the help of Stark, he had enough to live in the hotel for a couple months until he and Betty found a permanent home. He had a few casual clothes as well, but he decided to try a simple gray T-Shirt and blue jeans for this encounter.
It was raining out, and Bruce was moving through the rain with his baseball cap on. He stopped in front of the restaurant, but saw no sign of Betty. As he looked around, he saw the silhouette of his dearest near the alley.
"Bruce?" She called out. "Bruce, somebody needs help!" She rushed into the alley.
There were no other pedestrians to hear her cry for help, so Banner jogged toward the alley to try and find Betty.
"Betty? Betty!" He called through the darkness. "I can't see you! What happened?" He narrowed his eyes as he tried to see deeper into the darkness. There was no sign of anyone at all…until a flash of lightning revealed Betty standing in the middle of the alley. "…Betty…?"
All the air left Bruce's swelled in Bruce's lungs with a large palm encased his throat and smashed him back against a wall. The large palm had elongating, thick sharp claws, and the man had cat-like fangs in his wide mouth.
The man towered over Bruce and slid him up against the wall as 'Betty' approached. "You're coming home with us." The man spoke in a deep tone.
Betty only smiled…with both of her eyes glowing yellow for a quarter of a second.
Bruce had no idea what was going on, or what happened to Betty…if it was even really her. All he knew was he was frightened, and painted a picture in his mind of his love being harmed in any way…or perhaps she betray him? Either way, it was causing Bruce's eyes to glow green as he lost all control.
"Victor!" A young woman shouted from the mouth of the alley.
The large man holding Bruce looked away only long enough for Bruce's neck to thicken beyond the grasp of his hand.
As the young woman ran full speed at them, Bruce's mind blacked out completely…
(Flashback End)
Day 12…Later That Night…
Sleep eventually found Bruce.
…and so did trouble.
All Bruce heard was commotion, and he realized he was being carried off into the jungle on a large man's shoulders. He heard Ana Lucia screaming 'which way did they go' in the distance, but the kicking and screaming of the children was what really captured his ears.
He had to save the children and his fellow passengers…but the backlash of his transformation made him fear becoming an outcast.
Nearly thirty seconds later, Bruce chose to act rather than wait. His eyes shut rightly as he came to an agreement with the beast within. When his eyes popped open, they were once again glowing bright enough to send trails of green illumination through the darkness.
He began to change, getting heavy on the man's back. As he fell behind trying to support the thrashing and enraged scientist, he called for assistance in carrying him quickly.
Another barefoot man came to his side, but Bruce's feet were bursting through his shoes. The helper stood by terrified as the transformation quickly neared completion. The man carrying him buckled and dropped Bruce onto the ground behind him to keep from being crushed. As the two men tried to run away…two massive palms erupted forth and encased their torsos.
Shortly after Ana Lucia discovered the list…the massive roar of the monster echoed through the island.
One of the bodies of the others broke through the jungles as if fired off on a rocket and skid across the water until roughly landing far off shore. The next body was mangled from breaking through trees and rolled along the beach until it stopped face-down along the shoreline.
Everyone was petrified where they stood. The roaring continued, as well as thunderous stomping. Everyone but Eko stood by idly. Ana Lucia assumed Eko was going to try and track the others, but she was afraid whatever was out there would kill him too. "Hey! Hey wait!" She called, but received no answer as expected.
While searching, Eko found massive footprints and torn clothing and shoes of Bruce's. He collected the articles and maintained his route on the trail…but paused several meters away from the crouched and hiding beast.
His presence was intimidating, even with the courage engraved in Eko's eyes. He would not back down in fear if it attacked, but this monster clearly did not take the children. If it was the force behind killing two of the abductors, he knew this guardian beast was in fact protecting them….
To Be Continued…
Notes: Eh…I don't know. Was watching Season 2 shortly after watching the Incredible Hulk after a long time. Ideas clicked! Let me know what you think of this idea thus far…there may be MORE Marvel characters on the island with our survivors…
